High Roads
Part Three: Low Roads
Sectionn 3.1: The lowest roads world wide
-7m	-23ft	Alexanderpolder, Rotterdam	Netherlands	Web	Lowest point in western Europe? Road(s) not known. See also below.
(-16m)	-53ft	Lake Eyre (usually dry)	South Australia	Web	Lowest point in Australia - driveable dry bed - Donald Campbell's Bluebird set World Land Speed Record 1964 - click here
(-28m)	-92ft	Shore of Caspian Sea	Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan	Web	The surface of the Caspian Sea is the lowest point in Europe. The lowest motorable point will be a shore road in Russia or Azerbaijan at c -25m
-42m (-40m)	-131ft (-137')	Salinas Grandes**	Península Valdés, Argentina	Map (Web)	On Inca Trail rally 2001. Lowest point in South America, reachable by private dirt road. -42m on map in Guía Turistel 2001.
-85.5m	(-280ft)	Badwater*	Death Valley, California	Sign	Lowest point in the Americas. Paved road runs alongside.
-160m	(-524ft)	Djourab Depression	Chad, Africa	Web	See below - lowest point in Africa? Roads unknown.
-400m	(-1312ft)	Shores of Dead Sea**	Jordan/Israel	Web	The surface of the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the earth's surface. Its altitude is variously given as between -394m and -400m, and of course it rises and falls with water inflow and evaporation. In Jordan, the Dead Sea Highway runs only a few metres above this, at approximately -390m (-1,280ft). Undoubtedly the world's lowest road is this or another road by this sea. When the 1998 HERO London-Cape Town rally used the Dead Sea Highway, one participant was rash enough to drive to the water's edge, where his car sank into the mud - the lowest you can drive a motor vehicle on the earth's surface.
At www.graphicmaps.com/aatlas/infopage/highlow.htm is a list of highest and lowest points in each country. The following are those lowest points which are below sea level, excluding the ones listed above. It is likely that many of these are served by a motorable road of some kind, but I have no information about this.
-2m	Rhone delta		France
-2m	Freepsum Lake		Germany
-2m	Raczki Elblaskie		Poland
-2m	Unnamed location in the coastal plain		Suriname
-3m	Sebkha de Ndrhamcha		Mauritania
-4m	Hachiro-gata		Japan
-6.74m	Nieuwerkerk aan den Ijssel		Netherlands (NB see above)
-7m	Lammefjord		Denmark
-10m	Laguna Salada		Mexico
-12m	Sariqarnish Kuli		Uzbekistan
-17m	Shatt al Gharsah		Tunisia
-40m	Chott Melrhir		Algeria
-40m	Salinas Chicas		Argentina
-46m	Lago Enriquillo		Dominican Republic
-47m	Sabkhat Ghuzayyil		Libya
-55m	Sebkha Tah		Morocco
-81m	Vpadina Akchanaya		Turkmenistan
-75m	Near Kulul within the Denakil depression		Eritrea
-125m	Denakil		Ethiopia
-132m	Vpadina Kaundy		Kazakhstan
-133m	Qattara Depression		Egypt
-154m	Turpan Pendi		China
-155m	Lac Assal		Djibouti
-160m	Djourab Depression		Chad
Section 3.2: Britain's lowest roads
Where are the lowest roads in Britain? There are half a dozen yellow roads with 0m spot heights on sheet 143 to the NE of Outwell, Norfolk (although only two of these - at 555052 and 587095 - were 0ft on 1" sheet 124 1968 revn; 539089 & 554089 were 1ft, and the others are new). I found just one (but on a no-through yellow) with a -1m spot height, at 143/649910 (also new since 1968). (On 1" sheet 134, 1960 reprint, there were -1ft SHs at 344869 and 337857, but these have become 1m on 1:50K sheet 142.) I have not yet found a 0m SH on any classified road on the 1:50K maps, but there was a 0ft one on the A1101 at 135 (now 143)/648833. Any improvements on this very cursory search?